This is the story not only of the regiment but of the lives of each of the more than 1,700 men who served in it.

The book is something of a day-to-day diary rather than a narrative of the regiment. To produce the account McLean pored over an amazing number of unpublished accounts, letters, diaries, newspaper reports and family stories.

For anyone researching an ancestor in the 13th Mississippi, McLean’s book is invaluable. You can find out what your ancestor was probably doing at almost any given moment. An added value are the photos of many of the men of the 13th, included one of Francis Marion Poore, one of the three Poore brothers in the war.

McLean’s book and the companion CD are now available at Amazon.com. Both are great resources that I continue to use and highly recommend. I might add that Jess McLean was personally helpful to me and was generous with his time and information when I emailed him with questions.

Question: Do you have a resource that was highly valuable to you in researching your ancestor’s Civil War? If so, please leave a comment.